'Lingaa' Opening Weekend Box Office Collection: Rajini-Starrer Becomes Highest 3-Day Grosser of 2014 in Chennai

Rajinikanth-KS Ravi Kumar's film "Lingaa" is creating waves at the worldwide box office, despite getting mixed reviews from critics.

"Lingaa" has emerged as the highest opening weekend grosser at the Chennai box office. The film has witnessed average theatre occupancy of 98% and has minted ₹2.70 crore during the first weekend in Chennai. The film has topped the list of top five highest opening-weekend grossers of 2014. The other four films include "Anjaan," "Kochadaiiyaan," "Kaththi" and "Velai Illa Pattathari."

"#Lingaa storms Chennai box-office, nets an awesome Rs 2.70 Cr in its opening weekend (Dec 12 -14). 'Plexes rocked," tweeted entertainment industry tracker Sreedhar Pillai.

The Rajinikanth-starrer set a new record on the opening day by minting around ₹37 crore at the worldwide box office. It is the first south Indian film to earn such huge collections during the first weekend. There are also reports emerging that "Lingaa" has grossed ₹100 crore in its opening weekend worldwide. The film is reportedly the fastest Tamil entertainer to cross the ₹100 crore mark.

"Lingaa" is faring well not just in India but also in overseas markets. The film has crossed the 1 million mark at the US box office. The Rajini-starrer earned $1.205 million from 140 screens in three days, including Thursday premiere shows, at the US box office. The film has emerged as the highest grossing Tamil flick of 2014 beating "Kochadaiiyaan" and "Kaththi" collections. It is all set to beat "Vishwaroopam" collections and take the second spot in the list of all-time highest grossing Tamil films in the US.

"#Lingaa USA Saturday $412559, total at $1.205M from 140 scrns. Just $60K to beat combined gross of Vishwaroopam to bcom all time #2 in USA," tweeted Atmus Entertainment, the Tamil film distributors in the US.

The film is estimated to have earned $1.8 million in the first four days at the US box office. It will be interesting to see if "Lingaa" manages to continue its impressive run during the weekdays.